A tense, timely thriller with heart and a standout heroic lead.
This first installment in Lovett and Schultz’s political thriller series introduces a team of international experts dedicated to human rights.
In Yangon, Myanmar, a country ripped apart by a coup, 12-year-old Vika is arrested alongside his father for the crime of sharing poetry. News of Vika’s arrest reaches Kae Zhang, the fearless founder of the Geneva-based human rights organization Article 5. Kae and her diverse team of driven workers, each with personal experience of global displacement and discrimination, set to work on the tricky logistics of getting Kae into Myanmar to negotiate Vika’s release. With the help of her mentor, the crusty and brazen Reinhardt Allen, Kae and her number two, Anan, set off for Thailand, where they begin a dangerous journey across the border into Myanmar. Reinhardt engages a trusted guide named Champo and secures a meeting with a colonel who may be willing to negotiate—but only on his terms. As Kae moves through a shifting landscape of dangerous jungles, decimated villages, and unjust courts, Vika’s freedom seems to move ever further out of reach. Enemies soon appear on all sides—even back in Geneva, where the rest of the Article 5 team members start to feel the reverberations of their dangerous fight for the young boy’s life. Lovett and Schultz map familiar espionage tropes onto well-rendered real-world struggles; realistic fights for dignity and justice drive the action. The authors’ depictions of Myanmar—and of the terror imposed by its military rulers—feel both chilling and authentic, beginning with the assault on Vika’s shop, where “terror lingered in the air, an acrid burning smell.” Kae is an admirable hero with a compelling balance of impressive credentials and relatable insecurity. (She displays plenty of wit, as well: “I just channel my inner Sisyphus,” she says to explain her perseverance.) The cast of secondary characters at Article 5 is equally engaging; the team members are distinguished by vivid personalities and layered backstories. The shared histories and subtle shorthand between them hint at a whole world of fascinating previous adventures and ones to come as the series progresses.
A tense, timely thriller with heart and a standout heroic lead.Pub Date: April 22, 2026
ISBN: 9781644568842
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.
On the isle of Capri, Helen Lingate seeks revenge on the people responsible for her mother’s death 30 years earlier—her own family.
When Sarah Lingate fell to her death on Capri in 1992, she left behind a 3-year-old daughter, Helen, and a legacy as a gifted playwright; her favorite necklace of golden snakes was lost to the sea. Thirty years later, Helen, chafing at the restrictions she’s grown up under as a member of the old-money Lingate family, hatches a plan with her uncle Marcus’ assistant, Lorna Moreno, to blackmail her uncle and her father with that same necklace, which mysteriously entered her possession a few months before. The novel begins on Capri just after Lorna disappears, and then traces her steps from 36 hours earlier. Interweaving chapters from the points of view of Helen, Lorna, and Sarah—as well as, later, a few others—we learn how Sarah gradually became stifled by the constant pressure of keeping up appearances until she became inspired to write a play, Saltwater, that was a not-so-thinly veiled tell-all revealing dark Lingate family secrets. It was shortly after this that she fell to her death. The loss of her mother has come to define Helen’s life, and if she can use the necklace as leverage to escape her family, and maybe learn the truth along the way, she’ll take the risk. Lorna’s motives are both murkier and more straightforward—she’s never had money, and she’s got a chip on her shoulder about it, so splitting 10 million euros with Helen sounds like a way to discard her past and start fresh. These strong, conniving women drive the drama and the narrative, and they are captivating enough that as twist after twist begins to unfurl, the novel still feels character-driven. The end—well, the end shocks. And it’s well earned. By the time the sun sets on the gorgeous excess and rugged coast of Capri, lives will have been destroyed.
A feisty storm of Greek tragedy headlined by three very modern women.Pub Date: March 25, 2025
ISBN: 9780593875551
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.
Second of the Walter Nash thrillers—following Nash Falls (2025)—in which the remade hero seeks vengeance.
Due to urgent circumstances, Nash has bulked himself up to become the “muscled and tatted fighting machine” now known as Dillon Hope. His antagonist is Victoria Steers, a global drug dealer who wants him dead. Not realizing his new identity, she enlists Hope to free her mother, Masuyo, from a prison in Myanmar. As an incentive, she shoots one of her associates and threatens to frame Hope for the murder unless he complies. She also wants him to find Nash. He in turn wants to kill Victoria to avenge the death of his innocent daughter, Maggie. “If I go down,” he muses, “I’m taking others with me. Starting with Victoria Steers.” He learns that Victoria had killed all her siblings to eliminate business competition. But as heartless as Victoria is, her mother, Masuyo, is even worse. In league with the Chinese government in a perverse plan to kill as many Americans as possible through fentanyl overdose, she shows contempt for Victoria for her perceived weaknesses. Readers won’t find many happy family relationships here: mother-daughter, father-son, husband-wife—all fraught. Hope’s employer, who accompanies him to Myanmar, is a billionaire chief executive with a dodgy past (i.e., probably killed his father). And there’s a mega-billionaire with an astronomical IQ and ditch-deep morals who, putting it mildly, does not have America’s best interests at heart. As a teenager, he’d defeated two world chess champions; as an adult, he regards his dealings with the world in terms of master chess moves. Only one character seems truly decent and credible—Hiroko, Victoria’s former nanny and lifelong companion, who provides Hope with valuable insights into the Steers’ background, which is partly Chinese. Searing grudges, simple evil, and not-so-simple misunderstandings carry the cast through this complex, action-packed plot. This sequel ties out the loose ends dangling in Nash Falls, which would be helpful to read first. To get to the requisite ending, though, Baldacci takes pains to surprise the reader. It works but often feels forced.
Filled with action, violence, and more twists than a bag of pretzels.Pub Date: April 14, 2026
ISBN: 9781538758021
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2026
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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